Stories Utold: Shadow Zone
by FlatlinedGamer
Summary: Inspired by the song Shadow Zone by Static-X. Cullen is patroling the Storm Coast when a tear in the fade opens up and sucks him into another dimension. Thedas has merged with Earth and Korbin isn't the woman he remembers... or loves. Linked to Stories Untold by events and characters ONLY. Not cannon to Stories Untold.


**Stories Untold: Shadow Zone**

 **Chapter One: Radioactive**

 **AN:** I would highly suggest reading Stories Untold before reading this to get an idea about Korbin. THIS IS NOT CANON TO STORIES UNTOLD!

* * *

Cullen opened his eyes slowly and instantly regretted it. The light was blinding and it sent spikes of pain shooting through his head. The rocks he lay on weren't the storm-smoothed stones of the Storm Coast. These were jagged and broken. Possibly the remains of a destroyed building, but he wouldn't know for sure until he opened his Maker damned eyes!

Slowly, he cracked his eyelids. The pain subsided with time, but his head was pounding. Be it from an injury or Lyrium withdrawals, he wasn't sure. Cullen just knew that it felt like his head was trying to split open. He heard a laugh in the distance and a familiar voice drifted to him.

"You saw that, yeah?" a woman's voice called. "Blew the fucking building right to bits!"

 _Sera_ , his mind supplied. What was she doing on the Storm Coast? What happened to him?

"Damn," this time a familiar male voice. "Look there, one of those bastards is still alive. We got lucky he's alive. I didn't expect the blast to be so big. She'll be happy we got one."

Again his mind gave him the name of the speaker. This time it was Dorian. He heard another voice, but this wasn't one he recognized. The man screamed insults at the pair and they just laughed. That didn't sound like Dorian at the very least. He wasn't so callous. Cullen tried to picked himself up again, but he was injured too badly. He hurt too much. Where was she? Why wasn't she there to help him?

The Commander tried to lift his head. Tried to yell for help. He coughed and wheezed, his throat dry and painful. They heard him none the less and came to him.

"Is that?" Dorian started.

"Looks like another fucked soul came through a soft spot," Sera cackled. "We better take him back before Coryphyfuck finds him."

Then Cullen was being lifted and everything went dark.

* * *

As Cullen cracks his eyes open he becomes aware of foreign music and singing, as well as a very familiar voice singing along. The words are not from any song he's ever heard her sing.

"The steady burst of snow is burning my hands," she sings. "I'm frozen to the bones, I am a million miles from home. I'm walking away. I can't remember your eyes, your face."

His head hurts and the next song doesn't make it any better. Cullen knows, somehow, that this was what she talked about so often. The music she loved so much, but he never got to hear for himself.

"I think Blondie's waking up." Varric. He _knew_ it was Varric. The nickname wasn't familiar to him.

"Serves him right," she says, voice muffled by something in her mouth. "Hey, Anders! Get yur ass up. We ain't got time for you to flop around. I told you not to drink and fucking did that shit anyways."

Cullen hears a groan not far away. That must be the man she was talking to. He recognised the name Anders. He was the mage that blew up the Chantry in Kirkwall. What was he doing here?

"What do you want, woman!" Anders replies, angry to be woken after drinking himself into a stupor.

"What I want is for you to stop taking that fucking tone with me and check on the prisoner and the guy that fell through the rip Dorian's magic created." He still couldn't... _wouldn't_ think her name.

There was a muffled curse and more lip from Anders.

"You know, Shorty," Varric said. "I think I recognize that guy. Not the prisoner, but the one that came through the tear."

"I was thinking the same thing," she said. "Kirkwall maybe?"

"Yeah," Varric agreed. "That's exactly where I think I know him from."

"Let's ask Cass and Hawke when they get back," she sighed. "I honestly can't place him beyond Kirkwall."

Cullen's head spun. She didn't remember him? How was that even possible? And what did they mean by a 'tear'? He had so many questions, but no answers! He felt Anders moving around him and heard him mutter that he should wake up any time now. Cullen didn't want to open his eyes. He was genuinely afraid of seeing her. He was afraid she would look at him and not know who he was or how much he loved her.

* * *

Cullen's eyes drifted open slowly. He must have fallen asleep. He sat up gingerly, trying to keep his head from hurting again. He was laying on a cot inside the ruins of a building the likes of which Cullen had never seen before. The remnants of wires and pipes sticking out of the walls. This place looked like something out of one of _her_ stories.

"You're awake."

Cullen jumped at the voice. He wasn't ready to face whatever was going on here, but he had no choice. "Where am I?"

"A destroyed building in New Montgomery," she sighed. "I think this was... well, it doesn't matter what I think it used to be, because you wouldn't know what I'm talking about. Long story short, because I know you're going to ask, on my second crossing into Thedas something went very wrong and Thedas merged with Earth. It merged wrong at that. My home was in the northern hemisphere and most of the shit of worth in Thedas was in the southern hemisphere. Our worlds merged wrong, but they did it anyway and here we are. Sometimes people from Thedas fall out of tears n the world. Welcome to New Earth Thedas. Where no map can tell you where the hell you are and where the hell you're going!"

Cullen finally got the courage to look at her. She sat higher up than anything else. On a pile of ruble that hadn't been cleared. There were stairs leading up to her perch. She was different. Her hair was shorter and all blood red instead of multicolored. A dye, maybe? She wore camouflage and thick black boots. She wasn't the same. She looked haunted. Like she had lost everything she had ever cared about.

"Korbin?" he asked gently, not wanting to spook her by knowing her name when she obviously didn't know him.

Korbin's head shot up. "How do you know my name?"

Cullen let out a long sigh. "Kirkwall. I remember you from Kirkwall. I was stationed there when Anders destroyed the Chantry. You used to torment me, I fought by your side the night you returned home for a year. Before... this."

Her eyes widened. "Holy shit-fuck! I remember you! You took Bethany to Circle while Hawke was in the Deep Roads."

Cullen gave her a sad smile and nodded. "Yes, that was me."

"Damn," Korbin laughed. "I can't believe it! You got fucking lucky you can through where you did. If it weren't for Dorian and Sera you'd be dead or brainwashed by Corypheus. Then I would have had to kill you. BAM! You never would have seen that shit coming."

No, he decided. This was not his Korbin. This was not the woman he loved. At one point she had been, but the events in this place had destroyed the woman she would have become. They turned into the callous woman before him that had grown to match the world she now lived in. "I suppose it's a good thing they found me first."

Korbin nodded. "Yup. Sure is." She tilted her head to the side. "Come on. Sounds like the others are back."

* * *

"No shit?" Varric said with a nervous laugh after Korbin explained who Cullen was. "Well... that's some shit."

Cass looked at the dwarf with annoyance. "What he means to say is that you can not be who you say you are."

"Why can't I?" Cullen asked, confused. "Am I missing something?"

Korbin looked to her friends with guarded eyes. "What are you saying, Cass?"

"She's saying he's dead," Leliana sighed. "He died in the grasp of a pride demon trying to save innocent people when the fade ripped open and destroyed everything."

Cullen paled, but didn't speak. He tried to wrap his mind around the news that in this world he was dead. He had never had the chance to meet Korbin in Haven. "I..." he started, but didn't continue. This was insane.

"Perhaps you know something that no one else does?" Cassandra suggested. "Something that could prove that you are, in fact, Cullen Rutherford?"

"I..." he stopped again, blushing before he decided make a fool of himself. For her. "I'm afraid that most of what I know involves... er, Korbin."

An eyebrow rose as Korbin studied him. Well, that was cute. He was blushing. "Tell me something only my friends would know then."

Cullen cleared his throat. "You never wanted anyone outside the Inner Circle to know that you were afraid of undead creatures."

Korbin's eye were dead. Maybe that wasn't the right thing to say. "If you really know me, then you can come up with something much more personal than that."

He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Your grandfather died from something you called Cancer. You told me that he survived for years after your grandmother died and that it wasn't surprising because he was strong. He raised you after your parents died because no one else in your family would. He taught you everything you know about raising and training animals. Your first crossing involved you falling down a well after seeing a dragon in a world that didn't have them. You called Anders a moleman. You love music. You love to sing. You're incredibly loyal to those you care for. You're cousin is a mage. You saved Jax from a feedlot. What?! What do you want me to say? I would do anything to keep you happy and safe, but you never let me or anyone else!"

Korbin blinked at the realization that the man sitting in front of her knew more than almost anyone sitting in this room. He spoke of her as if he held the most intimate knowledge of her.

"Oh," he said suddenly, coldly. His embarrassment forgotten at the moment. "I know about that freckle that no one can see unless they're..." He cleared his throat. " _On top_ of you." A blush crept up the poor man's neck and right to his ears.

"Well," Korbin said, her voice running a little high. Face starting to match her hair. "That's... um... uh... Well, shit."

Varric started laughing then. "If he's telling the truth, he seems to know you pretty damn well, Shorty!"

Cullen watched with a small amount of satisfaction as Korbin covered her burning face. "I did." He let out a long sigh. "What happened to Hunter Trevelyan?"

"He's dead," Cassandra told him sadly. "He... he fought Corypheus and paid the price of standing against him."

Cullen nodded. "I'm sorry to hear that. He is... was a good man and a damn good friend. What of the Inquisition?"

Dorian snorted as he walked in the door with Sera and Iron Bull on his heels. "You're looking at it! Cassandra, if you see Hawke before I do, tell him I need to speak with him about his glowing boy toy. I'm not amused."

Korbin smiled. "Fenris isn't very fond of you either, Dory. Just remember that. Why do you think I don't send you two out together?"

"Because Hawke is a jealous bastard and I'm handsome?" the mage asked hopefully. Korbin laughed and shook her head. "Damn, and here I was hoping it _wasn't_ because I'm from Tevinter and a mage."

Korbin snorted and waved him off. "Go on you bastards. I know one of found something out there. Go drink and be stupid." Cullen watched as she smiled at the group filtering out. "And don't let Anders have any!"

"Some things never change," Cullen said with a light smile. "You still care deeply for your friends, even if..."

"Even if what?" Korbin asked, confused.

He sighed. "It's just... you aren't the same as my Korbin. Not exactly. Then again, I can understand why. This world... it's not Thedas."

"So, you're saying that in some other time line I go back to Thedas? Not like it is here, but as it really is supposed to be?" she asked, desperate.

"Yes," Cullen tells her. "Thedas is whole. The sky is healed. Corypheus is dead thanks to you, Hunter, Solas, and Cassandra. The world was almost right again."

Korbin gave him a wistful smile. "I don't know who Solas is, but I'm glad to know that, even if it isn't here and now, I got a happy ending. Thank you, Cullen. You brightened my day up a little bit with that. Sick as it sounds. Too bad you're here and not with the other me. I'm sorry about that."

"Don't be," he told her. "It's not your fault. I'm here now. I'll have to try to find a way home and if I can't do that, I'll just have to find a way to live here."


End file.
